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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27158578">Insidious</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Last_Kenobi/pseuds/The_Last_Kenobi'>The_Last_Kenobi</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020 [22]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Abusive Relationships, Dark, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Manipulative Sheev Palpatine, Poison, Poisoning, Sith Artifacts (Star Wars), Whump, Whumptober 2020, dark themes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 23:42:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,577</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27158578</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Last_Kenobi/pseuds/The_Last_Kenobi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker are able to steal two weeks of freedom towards the end of the war - two weeks to spend together, away from the world, just holding one another like they did on Naboo.</p><p>This, in the end, is what kills them.</p><p> </p><p>Written for Whumptober 2020<br/>Day 22 - Poison</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Obi-Wan Kenobi &amp; Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala &amp; Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020 [22]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956463</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>54</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Insidious</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p>“Anakin!” Padmé’s joyful cry resounded through their apartment.</p><p>Her husband laughed, rushing forward to meet her halfway as she ran out of the bedroom, her arms held out. She leapt into his open arms and they fit together like puzzle pieces, Padmé’s hands linking behind Anakin’s neck and her legs around his waist, his hands on her back and his lips finding hers at once.</p><p>They stayed that way for a full minute, relishing in skin-to-skin contact.</p><p>The afternoon light spilled warm amber across the apartments, lighting up everything that Padmé had so carefully put together over the years, lighting up Padmé’s elaborate braided hair and the lines of both their bodies.</p><p>Anakin’s hand move to the gentle swell of her stomach where their child lay.</p><p>Not quite six months along.</p><p>“What are you doing here?” Padmé asked, coming up for air.</p><p>“That’s a rude question,” Anakin said in mock offense. “I live here. Sometimes.”</p><p>“Yes, yes,” his wife laughed, stretching herself and wiggling out of his grip so that she could stand on the floor, still leaning against him. “But you were on campaign! I wasn’t supposed to see you for months!”</p><p>“Again, rude,” he complained. Then he smiled and kissed her again before explaining, “We ended up getting three systems worth of converts from the Seps. They’re defending their own territory, per their request, so—we got sent home on leave. The Outer Rim battles have cooled off, so until something goes to hell…” Another kiss. “I’m all yours.”</p><p>The Senator smiled. “What a burden for me, whatever shall I do?”</p><p>Anakin smirked. “I can think of a few things.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>It was a beautiful, perfect week.</p><p>Five flawless days.</p><p>They stayed in most of the time, avoiding the media, avoiding the Senate and the Council. Obi-Wan covered for them at the Temple (not that Anakin would ever admit it.) Padmé’s decoys covered for her at the Senate, as they had been trained to do.</p><p>No one knew they were there, and it was perfect.</p><p>Padmé taught Anakin to cook—or she tried to.</p><p>They stood together in front of the stove, her hands gently gliding his over the controls, tilting his fingers to pour out spices and seasonings, guiding him as he stirred and chopped. She laughed as he groaned and whined, completely out of his depth.</p><p>For Anakin, food was a necessity, and if it was to be enjoyed, usually Dex or Obi-Wan was cooking.</p><p>For Padmé, food could be an art form. She had no patience for the overpriced restaurants where she and other politicians met to argue in mild tones while sipping wine and slicing tiny portions of protein and veg, but she had a deep-seated love of well-made meals and the ingredients customary to Naboo.</p><p>Anakin’s attempts, even with her guidance, were never quite right.</p><p>But they were still perfect.</p><p>Especially eaten on their balcony, sharing a chair, the wife seated happily on her husband’s lap.</p><p>Or on the floor in front of the television, watching their favorite holofilms on top of blankets spread across the floor, Anakin tracing his hand down the back of her spine.</p><p>Or on their bed, on and under a mountain of pillows, idly feeding one another forkfuls and talking in low voices until the sun set and the artificial lamps came on.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Anakin practiced his katas, and asked Padmé to join him. Even six months pregnant, she was flexible and stronger than she looked.</p><p>The katas wavered between training and dancing.</p><p>Sometimes, Anakin would hum, and Padmé would laugh and lean into him, listening to his voice rumble in his chest.</p><p>And sometimes she kicked his ass.</p><p>He couldn’t even blame it on him not wanting to injure her. She was just good at concealing her intentions, even through the Force, right up until she struck.</p><p>Damn, he loved his wife.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They talked about everything—the war, before the war, their dreams for after the war. Baby names. Houses on Naboo. Balancing Padmé’s inevitable retirement—or temporary absence—from the Senate, and Anakin’s need to serve the Republic at least until the end of the war.</p><p>They talked about their child’s future. Schools. Travel opportunities. Where they would primarily live.</p><p>There would be no Temple childhood for their baby, but Anakin was determined to train them in the ways of the Force. “The Force,” he reiterated, “not the Jedi.”</p><p>He would rest his hand on the curve of her stomach and feel the baby’s glow in the Force.</p><p>“It’s strong,” he always said.</p><p>Padmé would chuckle and say, “Well, he or she certainly kicks strong. Might as well be two babies.”</p><p>And they’d both laugh, and fall asleep with their noses almost touching.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>After the first, perfect week…</p><p> </p><p>Things began to change.</p><p>Anakin’s insomnia caught up with him again. His nightmares of his wife’s death plagued him every night.</p><p>Padmé was tired, all the time. She was wan and pale and in no mood for Anakin’s mood swings between panicked and angry.</p><p>The cooking together stopped—Padmé cooked alone.</p><p>The joint katas stopped—Anakin trained alone.</p><p>The shared films and balcony dinners stopped—they ate at the table, occasionally holding hands, but never more than that.</p><p>There was a strange, heady buzzing in Anakin’s brain that he couldn’t turn off.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>On the tenth day of their strange vacation from the war and the rest of the world, it all stopped.</p><p> </p><p>Anakin woke from something that wasn’t sleep and fell to the floor, clutching his head, fighting back waves of rage and pain that were assaulting his mind and body. Rage, and pain, and poisonous fear. He gasped raggedly.</p><p>Padmé edged warily out of their bedroom, looking as if she wanted to rush to his side, but also somehow—afraid of him.</p><p>The rage-pain-fear grew worse.</p><p>He glared at his wife.</p><p>She was pale and fragile looking, and both her hands were cradling the baby bump. Her long brown curls were loose and unbrushed. “Ani?” she said hesitantly. “What’s going on?”</p><p>Rage, pain, fear.</p><p>“I don’t know!” he shouted at her, enraged.</p><p>She flinched. “Anakin…” she drifted closer, still cradling her stomach, looking as if a light breeze could knock her down. “Please…talk to me. Tell me what’s happening.”</p><p>“I—don’t—<em>know!</em>”</p><p>“Anakin…I don’t…I don’t feel well…” Padmé whispered.</p><p>She swayed.</p><p>She fell.</p><p>Anakin lunged and caught her just before she hit the floor, shaking as he looked down at her listless face. She was awake, but barely. Her dark eyes were dim. “Anakin…<em>stop</em>. Whatever you’re doing…you have to stop…<em>please</em>.”</p><p>“I’m not doing anything,” he said desperately, angrily.</p><p>She blinked. “…Hurts…”</p><p>“I know,” Anakin answered, and his voice broke. “I don’t know what’s happening to us. <em>I’m so sorry</em>, Padmé.” He was shaking, terrified, the fear overcoming him. What was happening? Why couldn’t he move?</p><p>“Call…for help,” she gasped, her hands still, still resting protectively over her stomach where their child lay. “Try—Obi-Wan.”</p><p>The rage returned.</p><p>“What?” he snarled, down at his limp and fragile pregnant wife. “<em>Obi-Wan?</em> You want me to invite him here, where we can’t keep him away from <em>our</em> secrets? Why do you <em>always</em> want to <em>tell</em> Obi-Wan?!”</p><p>Padmé’s face twisted in anguish and grief, and Anakin drew breath to shout at her again, but then—</p><p>“<em>Anakin, please</em>,” she sobbed. “<em>Help me!</em>”</p><p>He went from inferno-hot to ice-cold in less than a second.</p><p>“No,” he gasped, watching as her eyes began to close. “No, stay with me, angel, <em>please!</em> I’m so sorry!”</p><p>“The baby,” Padmé cried. “The…the baby, Anakin! Anakin…”</p><p>And then, with a shuddering gasp, Padmé Amidala died in his arms.</p><p>Anakin’s mind imploded into flames and despair.</p><p>A moment later, their apartment burst into flames, just their rooms, the fire erupting out of nowhere like the breath of a dragon. Anakin Skywalker held his dead wife and child in his arms and waited in silence for the burning of his flesh to match the burning inside his soul.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Darth Sidious screamed in rage, free to express himself deep in a secure and secret room inside his Senate suite.</p><p>“Why was I not <em>informed</em> that Skywalker was with Amidala?” he howled at his servants. “Neither the Council nor any of my spies knew anything!”</p><p>“My Lord,” one of his acolytes intoned, knowing full well he would not be allowed to explain.</p><p>He wasn’t. His neck snapped a moment later.</p><p>“The artifact that was poisoning Amidala was never meant to be exposed to Anakin Skywalker so <em>constantly</em>!” Sidious raged. “It would kill her slowly, sap her strength, steal her confidence in him! It would feed his dreams, the visions <em>I</em> <em>planted</em> in his head! The war was designed to keep them apart so they would die apart, and instead they were together and my apprentice is lost!”</p><p>Palpatine took a deep breath, plunging himself into the Dark, relishing in his own pain and fury.</p><p>“Very well,” he said coldly. “I will have to find an apprentice later. In the meantime, my plan must advance.”</p><p>Sidious withdrew a device from his pocket and switched it on, contacting the commanders of the GAR.</p><p>“Execute Order 66,” he said.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Then, after a moment’s consideration—</p><p>“Remand the Order in regards to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka Tano. They may be useful to me in my…explorations of the new Dark Order. And bring me whatever remains of Anakin Skywalker and his unborn child. Cloning is still an option.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
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